The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Global Map of Salt-Affected Soils, a key tool for halting salinization and boosting productivity. The map estimates that there are more than 833 million hectares of salt-affected soils around the globe (8.7% of the planet).

The first ever stocktake of restoring Africa’s forests and landscapes, launched today during Africa Climate Week, shows that more needs to be done to fully tap the enormous opportunity for the continent to return land to sustainable production, protect biodiversity, and shield livelihoods in the battle against climate change.

This report highlights why governments should reinvest underperforming public agricultural subsidies in land restoration.

The Union Environment Ministry has released the latest version of “Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India. It has been published by Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad. The A as provides a state-wise area of degraded lands for the time frame 2018-19.

Soil pollution is a chemical degradation process that consumes fertile soils, with implications for global food security and human health.

The report addresses the extent and future trends of soil pollution, considering both point source and diffuse soil pollution, and describes the risks and impacts of soil pollution on health, the environment and food security – including land degradation and the burden of disease resulting from exposure to polluted soil.

If the world is to meet the climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation targets, it needs to close a USD 4.1 trillion financing gap in nature by 2050. The current investments in Nature-based solutions amount to USD 133 billion – about 0.10 per cent of global GDP, most of which comes from public sources.

The Rangelands Atlas has been developed to document and raise awareness on the enormous environmental, economic and social value of rangelands as well as their different ecosystems. It highlights many of the changes taking place in rangelands due to climate change, land use and conversion trends, investments and other changes.

This Insight provides a brief introduction to the topic of tropical degradation, a summary of key results, and directions for future research and policy. The analysis reinforces the recent relevance of degradation in the Brazilian Amazon, and finds that there is a close relationship between degradation and deforestation.

A new WWF report has revealed how and why our planet has lost an area the size of California to deforestation in just over a decade.